


The Five Times Luna Nearly Excused Her Toxic Friends (And the One Time She Lost Her Emotions Years After)

by ETNMystic



Category: Original Work
Genre: Based on True Events, Based on a True Story, Emotional Abuse, Gaslighting, Gen, Toxic friendship, i need to get this off of my chest, idfc if they read this
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-06-22
Updated: 2019-06-22
Packaged: 2020-05-16 05:14:06
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,230
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/19311349
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ETNMystic/pseuds/ETNMystic
Summary: Based on true events. Basically I found out I'm a parselmouth, because I was talking to two snakes for about a year and a half.DISCLAIMER: I'm not blameless in this. I did kinda push my mental health on them by talking about it often. I felt like I didn't have a support system, but it's not an excuse.Direct quotes will be italicized and paraphrased ones left normal, because DO I remember some exact quotes from these bitches, including, and I can't italicize this so just imagine that it is, "Well, tough luck, buttercup." [CONTEXT: I texted Alana about how it's scary for me to go to the dean's office to tell him about my mental health and that was her response](Also if I had to pick a theme song for that year and a half, it'd be "Honestly" by Gabbie Hanna.)





	The Five Times Luna Nearly Excused Her Toxic Friends (And the One Time She Lost Her Emotions Years After)

  1. **They've been friends for almost a year by this point.** Alana and Misty are super close. Luna's a third wheel, but they're nice enough. She and Misty audition for the Shakespeare show that Alana is one of the directors for. Next morning before Chamber Singers, Alana posts the list and Misty and Luna are there to see her post it. Luna's an ensemble member. Misty's a lead role. Luna tries a technique that she learned from her favorite YouTuber.



"I'm so jealous that you got a lead," Luna tells Misty politely.  
"But I'm really happy for you."

And she is happy for Misty. But Alana speaks up.

"You can't say that to her," she snaps.

Luna tries the technique again when Misty gets a solo in choir. It elicits the same response from Alana. Luna decides to drop it. 

* * *

 

  1. **They go to New York for a choir event.** It's been a dream for Luna to go to New York. On the last night, Luna decides to get Alana and Misty a few gifts. Alana a Belle tiara. Misty a Snow White tiara. Herself a Rapunzel tiara (in hindsight, it seemed like unintentional foreshadowing). A chocolate bunny for Alana and Misty. Customized M&Ms with their names on them. They seem genuinely happy about it. In return, they let Luna be in their Snapchat story. Luna figured that she spent more money on them that night than on herself. But she wants to be a good friend.

* * *

  2. **They're flying back the next day.** Luna, thankfully, has an aisle seat. Alana, tall as she is, has a window seat and asks Luna to switch because being in a window seat gives her leg cramps. Reasonable. But Luna's not comfortable with this because the last time she was in a window seat, she had to pee really badly by the time they landed, but people were taking forever to get off. She's hesitant, but then Alana says



_"Think of all the things I've done for you."_

For the first fucking time in this friendship, a red flag goes off in Luna's head and she responds with the first thing she thinks of.

_"I got you the M &Ms."_

Eventually she works out a way they can both be happy. The next day, she texts Alana that what she said wasn't okay, guilt-tripping. Alana texts back "You do the same thing."

Luna begins to feel defensive, but she's a good friend. She decides to hear her out. Alana makes claims of her asking them to sugar-coat things for her. Luna doesn't remember any such instance. To ask someone to sugar-coat things would require her to directly ask them. The texting conversation escalates, ending with Luna in tears. But they're still friends. 

* * *

 

  1. **College acceptance letters have been coming for seniors.** Luna's already gotten accepted into her first choice school. But one afternoon, she gets one from another college. One that Misty got accepted to. And one Luna doesn't remember applying to in the first place, or at least why she applied to it. She texts this to Alana. At first Alana questions this. 



"Are you sure you wanna go there? It's not really a good school for theatre."

Reasonable question, as Luna wants to major in theatre. Then Alana asks

"Did you apply there because Misty's going there?"

Luna texts back.

"I honestly don't remember why I applied there."

Reasonable enough, right? Not to Alana.

She goes off, claiming that that was why she did and she was lying and how Misty's  _"not your keeper"_ and how Luna needs to back off. This is when it hits Luna; Alana's emotionally manipulative. But she's still scared to break off the friendship or tell Misty. She's scared that if she does, Misty would go as well. The night ends with Luna in tears.

* * *

 

  1. **It's a normal Saturday night, not too long after the college letter incident.** Luna's been avoiding sitting with them before class like she usually does. Lucky for her, senior year is almost over. But tonight she's going through a depressive episode, and decides to text Alana, who replies with "You're not even trying to get better." She texts Misty this and she agrees with Alana, claiming Luna's making  _"negative progress."_



A few months later, just before she goes off to her first-choice school, she and Misty go to see a movie. On the way there, Misty tells Luna something about theatre not really being a reasonable career option. On the way back, Luna finally tells Misty about that night. Misty is surprisingly sympathetic. She claims she doesn't like to take sides in her friends' problems, but if Alana was making her depression worse, she should just cut her off. That's the last time they have a full-out conversation. The next time Luna sees Misty, she's hanging around Alana as if they're symbiotic. So clearly that bit about her not wanting to take sides was nothing but a big fucking lie. She blocks Luna from social media around Christmas. Luna shrugs it off. 

* * *

 

  1. **Three years later, Luna's made new friends in college.** She's doing her best to work through her trust issues and insecurity. She's at a theatre festival with some of her friends. She's been super excited for this! The year before, she was cast in their very first improv intensive workshop. She discovered an awesome new restaurant. Now it's in a new location, but it's still a chance to get away from the familiar sites. (And the hotel she's at, while far from the convention center, gives free breakfast for the guests, so she considers that a win). Her best friend is a competitor again as well as entering her dramaturgy project in for judging. Luna also decides to go out for the Musical Theatre Intensive this year. She doesn't get in, but that's beside the point.



On the first night, she looks at the list of competitors. Once again she sees Misty's ex-boyfriend, who she had a slight crush on in high school. But then she sees the name 'Misty' with her last name.

"No, there's no way it's her," she gasps.  
"It can't be her."

She spends a good portion of the night trying to convince herself that it's NOT her. 

Some time later, it's the Opening Ceremony. Luna walks in to the theatre and up the stairs. All of a sudden, she spots that face. It IS her. A sense of dread fills her. But she tries to hurry past and sit with her friends. Her friend Dakota tells her there's nowhere for her to sit with them. Luna freezes, twitching slightly.

"Are you okay?" Dakota asks concerned.

Seeing Misty's face filled her emotional bottle to surface tension. But this is the pebble that causes it to overflow. Luna bursts into tears. Her friend Jessica sits with her and comforts her. Her best friend Penny hears about it, and tells her that it sucks, but that it's a big convention, that it's likely she won't even see her. 

Luna ends up seeing Misty AT LEAST once every day of that convention. Each time she does, she's angry. She wants closure. She wants to know why she and Alana did what they did to her. She wants to yell in her face. But she's never able to gather the courage to approach her. 

But maybe some things are better left unknown. 


End file.
